Stateless Ottawa man turns to GoFundMe after serious burns land him in hospital

Deepan Budlakoti, who is fighting for his Canadian citizenship, suffered second-degree burns to his hand during a vehicle repair mishap.

Joe Lofaro, The Ottawa Citizen

Updated: January 13, 2017

Deepan Budlakoti, who made headlines with his fight for citizenship when the Canadian government attempted to deport him after he was convicted of drug and firearm offences in 2010, is recovering from serious injuries he suffered on Dec. 12, 2016.Sean Kilpatrick / THE CANADIAN PRESS

A stateless Ottawa man has turned to the public for financial help after he suffered second-degree burns to several parts of his body, including his face, while helping a friend do repairs on a truck last month.

Deepan Budlakoti, who made headlines with his fight for citizenship when the Canadian government attempted to deport him after he was convicted of drug and firearm offences in 2010, is recovering from the serious Dec. 12 injuries.

He said he was working underneath the truck, changing a catalytic converter, when a spark ignited some spilled gasoline on his clothing.

He said he was rushed to The Ottawa Hospital’s General campus in an ambulance after he was initially hesitant about going there because he had been stripped of his provincial health-care coverage.

“I ended up calling the ambulance because it was really bad. My hand was all swollen up, in extreme pain. My face was peeling and blood everywhere. My legs were all burned, my thighs and my calves. It was a bad situation,” Budlakoti said in an interview Friday evening.

Budlakoti, 27, who was born in Ottawa and has an Ontario birth certificate and a Canadian passport, has no citizenship from any country.

After his criminal convictions in 2010, the government argued that being born to foreign nationals who worked at the Indian High Commission does not automatically make someone a Canadian citizen, and that the offences were serious enough to warrant his deportation to India – a country he has never seen.

Deepan Budlakoti suffered serious burns to a hand and his face while helping a friend do repairs on a truck on Dec. 12, 2016.GoFundMe /
-

He has argued that his parents quit the Indian High Commission in June 1989, four months before he was born. The courts, however, found the record isn’t reliable.

In January 2016, the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear his case after his citizenship pleas were turned down by both the Federal Court and Federal Court of Appeal.

His case is now pending with the United Nations Human Rights Committee, but in the meantime he still cannot work. With no income, he said he must find a way to pay a hospital bill of about $1,000, as well as cover other treatments, including daily visits to a clinic to clean and redress his wounds.

“It was extremely stressful and I’m concerned dramatically about the situation,” he said.

Daniel Cayley-Daoust, a member of the Justice for Deepan Support Committee, created a GoFundMe webpage to help raise $4,000 for Budlakoti. As of Friday night, the total raised sat at $1,415.